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Saturday, October 17, 2015

46 Million Swedish Household Records Go Online from MyHeritage.com

In an email from the Chief Genealogist Officer and Translation Manager, Daniel Horowitz, MyHeritage.com announced indexed, searchable Swedish Household Records from 1880-1920. More information about the huge new addition is contained in a blog post entitled, "46 Million Swedish Household Records Now Available." The blog posts explains:

We are happy to announce that we've added over 46 million Swedish records to MyHeritage SuperSearch. The high quality parish register records, spanning 1880 to 1920, are now available, indexed and searchable online for the first time. These records include information about births, deaths, marriages, addresses and changes in household composition. They provide a unique view into the lives of Swedish people living at that time, making this collection a fantastic family history resource for anyone with Swedish heritage.

Swedish Household Examination Books are the primary source for researching the lives of individuals and families throughout the Parishes of Sweden, from the late 1600s to modern times. The books were created and kept by the Swedish Lutheran Church, which was tasked with keeping the official records of the Swedish population until 1991.

Each book or series of books represents a 3-10 year period of time within a parish. Every year, until 1894, the parish priest would visit each home and test each individual’s knowledge of the catechism. They would also collect information about births, marriages, deaths, where people had moved to or from, etc. Each year the priest would return to update the previously recorded information, noting changes within the population of the home. Because the books were updated annually, families can be traced from year to year, and often from location to location throughout the country.

After 1894, the examinations were replaced by Församlingsbok, records of the Church of Sweden which were used to officially enumerate the population from year to year. The focus on examining doctrinal knowledge of the catechism was removed and instead the records were more focused on enumerating the Swedish population.

The article goes on to explain that the new Swedish records are being added to the more than 6 billion records already online. My wife has Swedish ancestry and she is already excited to hear about the new records.

MyHeritage goes on to state:

With the help of our Swedish partner, ArkivDigital, we have produced an index of names from the Swedish Household Examination Books consisting of over 5 million full-color and good quality images. This portion of the Swedish Household Examination Books (Husförhörslängder), mostly covers the years 1880-1920, with a few exceptions from the early 1800s and late 1700s. The Examination books are an invaluable collection that can provide insight into the make-up of families within Sweden, from birth to death or emigration.

Those who have a family tree on MyHeritage.com will start to receive Record Matches for all of the Swedish individuals in their family tree for the time periods of the records.